Tuesday, October 06, 2009

A Louse, is louse, is louse. Worked for Gertie Stein. Poetry is the means by which man best articulates what he sees, feels, thinks, tastes and wills. Poetry is math and music.

I was delighted to read that Poetry.com is on the record against parole for a double murderer, fugitive and unrepentant louse - Norman Porter. Norman Porter murdered two people in the 1960's in New England. In 1975, Governor Mike Dukakis communted one conviction.

Today the Chicago Tribune glossed over the horrors committed upon people by Porter. That is what a newspaper wrapped up in the subtleties of the Northwestern Wrongful Conviction and There But for Fortune Industry does with stories like Norman Porter's.You see Norman Porter skipped out on the law and hid in Chicago where he wrote poems as JJ.Jameson. How could a poet be bad?

A powerful voice in Poetry Chicago Poetry.com slams the louse Porter. The newsies whine that Porter has friends in Chicago - Well, Buckos, Poetry is not a friend of this murdering louse.

Poetry.com editor says this -

Norman Porter refuses to take responsibility for his own crimes. He also refuses to take responsibility for the people he hurt in Chicago. Even in the movie Killer Poet, when he was interviewed, Porter claimed the only thing he lied about to his friends in Chicago was his name. Really? How about when he told us he had two daughters? How about when he told us he was in the streets protesting the Vietnam War in the 60s and 70s, when he was really behind bars for brutally murdering someone? How about not warning those who put him up for the night that they were aiding and abetting a fugitive cop-killer? It's not hard to see why Porter shouldn't be paroled. It's simple. He committed the crime, now he has to do the time.

It is also not about how much it costs to keep someone in prison. Yes, prisons are expensive and, yes, some people should be released to keep the cost down, like those charged with minor drug offenses, for example. But in Norman Porter's case, we are talking about a man who was sentenced to two life terms for two brutal murders, who received every bit of leniency and mercy the system could offer, way more mercy than most prisoners get, and who then cold-heartedly took advantage of that mercy to sign himself out of prison to go take a walk, only to betray those who trusted him with that right. If I had $48,000 to spare every year, I would personally fund Porter's imprisonment in order to keep this malicious, murderous, lying manipulator off the streets.

Let us not forget that when Norman Porter was on the lam he was not living a "law-abiding" life. Every minute of every day of every year he was free he was committing a crime by being a fugitive wanted by the law. This big fiction that the "friends of Norman Porter" are creating, about how he was such a generous and caring person who didn't get in any trouble while he was on the lam, is just hogwash. Norman Porter was nothing but trouble and for some reason we celebrated that trouble. We celebrated that trouble because we didn't know who he really was. I am wondering how many of us would have sat there and watched his final reading at Coffee Chicago, when he was so high on narcotics that he couldn't even speak, if we knew that he was really Norman Porter from Massachusetts. How many people at the church would have trusted him with their kids if they knew? We were not given the opportunity to decide whether or not he was a trustworthy person, because he sold us a great big lie. We were not given the chance to decide whether or not he was worthy of our friendship. His life in Chicago, the lies he told, the relationships he ruined, and his destructive behavior were all crimes that he shouldn't have been given the opportunity to commit.

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A peach of a guy with all the sweetness one could expect from a life well-spent and in good company: short on brains but a terrific dancer!
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Every Heart and Hand: A Leo High School Story
The Chorito Hog Leg, Book One: A Novel of Guam in Time of War